OK, did I tell you, or did I tell you? Was that not one of the most perfect season finales ever to grace your screen?
Now, we know that Nate, Parker, Eliot, Sophie and Hardison are awesome. And by awesome, I mean spectacularly written and acted, funny, human, three-dimensional and, well, spunky. We’ve gotten a chance to see these main characters grow and evolve and become even more … well, awesome as the series has gone on.
The season finale has now elevated two supporting characters to awesome status: Maggie, Nate’s ex-wife, and Sterling, Nate’s nemesis.
As Keith will tell you, Mark Sheppard’s just about everywhere these days, but I’m sure glad he made it over to Leverage for a recurring role. Now that he’s VP at IYS, I have a feeling he’ll be making some trouble for the team in season two — bring it on, Sterling! He’s so loathsome that Nate counted on that for his plan to work. From announcing that he was going to rob the Two Davids exhibit to the ending, where Nate knew Sterling would sell out Blackpoole if it would serve himself, Nate played Sterling, and played him good. Sterling has added a new dimension to the evil-guy-of-the-week, just as Brett predicted back when Sterling made his first appearance.
And did you enjoy Maggie, Nate’s ex-wife, as much as I did? The button-cam scene was priceless! And she sure held her own while helping with the con on the museum director; poor guy — thought he was cursed! I hope, as Timothy Hutton said in our interview, that we haven’t seen the last of Maggie. I welcome the love triangle that could happen next season between Nate, Maggie and Sophie.
What’s interesting to me is how these two supporting characters made the heist of the paintings (not the Davids!) possible, each in their own way. We hadn’t seen that yet on Leverage, and it was a fun new twist, and the Leverage writers upped their game once again.
So what do you think? Did the Leverage finale live up to the (OK, my!) hype?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Feb 24, 2009 @ 23:00 EST5EDT
I thought it was great, though not as good as last week’s installment.
Though its quickly moved its way into my top five favorite shows (Which are, if anyone cares, BSG, Leverage, Lost, Life, HIMYM).
Now last night we finally got to see some Maggie/Nate action and I can see how those two pulled off that yes, they were married and still cared about each other vibe. Once again show us how good those two actors are. To me though the best part was Parker and Maggie’s dealing with each other, esp as the team was explaining the plan to her and Parker always smiling and touching Maggie and ending it with she, (Maggie) is so cute..
laughs
damn those two stole that part and basically each part they were in together. talk about chemistry!!!
For the life of me I cannot see what people like about this show. you keep calling it wonderfully written, but the writers have shown time and time again a complete ignorance about how people act and how the world works:
* The marks act way too conveniently and everyone else is boringly two dimensional.
* Nate’s alcoholism comes and goes randomly.
* Nate’s “relationship” with Sophie has no foundation, at least not enough of one to justify her level of creepy clingyness.
* That episode where Parker was on anti-depressants and they immediately made her cheerful almost made me claw my eyes out. Writers, please learn how stuff works before you use it in an episode.
* Ian Blackpoole is supposed to be this ruthless corporate puppet master yet he just completely switches his character at the end into a withering pile of babyman. it doesn’t make sense. Correct me if I’m wrong but Nate used to work for him recovering stolen insured items, so having items which he has insured be stolen is nothing new for him and he has time to recover said items before he has to pay out the insurance. why in the world would he then completely give up the moment he sees the art is stolen? Lazy, convenient writing that’s why.
I thought I would give this show a chance for a season to see if it grew and got better, but I will not be watching next season. If I feel like watching a quality show about con artists I will watch Hustle or Burn Notice.
P.S. Sorry for this comment being so long, I just can’t believe no one else holds this opinion.
Never apologize for comments being long… We love a good discourse around here!
That being said, I’m definitely one of those that considers this one of my favorite shows. Let me counter your points (in an equally long post :) ).
* Yeah, the marks do follow the script they don’t even know they are reading off of. But I guess that’s the point. We’ve seen a few instances where they’ve had to go off plan, and I hope that we the team face more of the unexpected a little more in the future. But, if our “heroes” weren’t any good, the show wouldn’t be any fun.
* I don’t think it comes and goes randomally. I think in the two-parter, there were times where he was playing drunk when he wasn’t that bad. The rest of the time when he’s drunk, he’s drunk, otherwise, he’s just “been drinking” as we like to call it.
* Just because we haven’t yet explored Sophie and Nate’s past doesn’t mean that there’s not one. Its been implied from Episode one, but I’m sure this season’s arc was always going to end with Maggie in the two parter, so they could only take the relationship so far (and thus explore the backstory more). Sophie has definitely grown on me as the season progressed, and I personally look forward to the two of them next season.
* Having little to no experience with this, I can’t comment. But it is a comedy, so I don’t mind them taking some license.
* I’d need to rewatch, but I didn’t think Blackpoole deteriorated until he knew that he’d been beaten, and beaten bad. He can be as ruthless as he can be, but when all that’s left is the fall, how you fall matters a great deal (and I’ve butchered that quote for my purposes).
I think the distinction is that its a comedy, and if you try to take it too seriously, its never going to hold up. Its too bad you don’t like it, because I love the heck out of it ;)
I think what’s preventing me from liking this show is that I was already a big fan of Hustle before Leverage started and they are essentially the same show, except in my opinion I believe that the people in hustle act more believably.
People still act like they are following a script written by the con artists that they don’t even know exists but whatever actions they are manipulated into taking still fit with their character. In leverage it seems like a completely different person possesses their body and does the convenient thing to make the con work for no real reason.
Hustle is a comedy as well but they don’t take the writing shortcuts at the expense of believable characters that Leverage does. I think that if I had never seen Hustle I could just sit back and enjoy the wild cons and jokes without over analyzing the writing but as it stands all I can think of every time I watch an episode is how hustle would have (or did) do the same situation differently.
I wish I could like it too, but unfortunately I don’t and I guess I’m alone in that. ;)
So what you’re really saying is I need to get off my butt and watch Hustle?
Sold.
The best part about Sterling getting played was that when he realized it, he didn’t even care! He was happy to oblige as long as it was in his interest to do so. His reaction was just about my favorite part of this episode.